Is it Friday yet??

My brain is so fried from this week, I'm not even sure this post will be in complete sentences. We have had so many stresses this week, it's almost getting funny. But not quite. I think in about 2 years, I might start giggling when I think about it, though, so I should write everything down now. Here are a few little going away gifts sweet Deutschland gave us this past week:

*Our fifth speeding ticket (only 15 Euros, though, so not terrible)

*My friend lost our extra house key and in our contract it says they could make us replace all the locks, which would be really expensive cause they're special locks. Due to a misunderstanding, I thought she wasn't concerned about it, so I wrote her an email that wasn't my best. I made her upset, then I felt really bad afterward

*We found out a few days later that we had accidentally left the second extra key in a drawer, which was packed up and in Frankfurt. So, we were missing two keys. And I wanted to shut my fingers in a door for getting upset at my friend for doing the same thing.

*The realtor called and said that eventhough he told Devin & me on separate occasions that we don't need to paint the apartment, that he was confused, and that we actually do have to paint. But we can just pay 700 Euros instead, considering he called us the day the movers were there packing everything and we had no time to do anything else.

*We found out that we are 500 lbs (Yes, that is five HUNDRED pounds) over our allotted weight limit for our shipment home. This is quite a problem because everything is completely packed up and in Frankfurt right now, over 3 hours from our house. We were completely surprised about that cause the surveyor who came to our house told us we were "totally fine" with our weight. Grrrrr.

*My Relief Society president called me "just to see if I was OK." Why? Do I sound nuts??

*We went over to our house today to meet with the realtor to discuss the wood floor, and whether we should pay damages for the scratches. When we got there, we noticed that the glass cooktop on our stove was shattered. We were supposed to be selling the kitchen to the new tenants in 3 days.

That's when it's starting to get funny. But not really. So, after our meeting with the realtor, we headed out to Ikea to price out the stove top. Devin & I walked in with our three kids and Dallin said, "Wow! We haven't been here in a while!" We just had to laugh because we were there so much when we first got here. We felt like it was only fitting that we end our time in Germany just like we began it-- in the kitchen section of Ikea. :)

In order not to go crazy, I also have to look at the blessings we've had this week:

*Our kids have been incredibly good and seem to not have any adjustment issues with the move, which is soooooo nice.

*The holiday apartment we're staying at is so lovely (as Dallin's teacher from Ireland would say). It's been so nice to have a little more space than just a hotel room. I think this is why our kids aren't having a hard time right now.

*The realtor gave us permission to try to copy our keys to make 2 more, but he was really doubtful that the stores would copy it without all this paperwork from the owners, who live in Spain. We went over to the key store, and they copied 2 keys with no questions asked. Yipee!

*The cleaning lady who broke the stove might have her insurance pay for it, so it may be allright in the end.

*Devin & I were able to go out on a quick date Thursday night (for Thanksgiving! haha) and went to a 5-minute (literally) organ concert at the Muenster, then to the Christmas market (Ohhh, how I love it), then to a fabulous dinner with the best tomato soup known to mankind.

*I'm pretty much a genius at the recycling center (dump) now, and have made a few friends that I'm considering pen paling when we get home.

laundry, sorting, chocolate crazies..... and more laundry

We've been spending the last week or so getting ready for our movers coming today. We're just glad it's almost over. :)

We started sleeping in a "hotel house" as my boys call it on Saturday. Instead of staying at a hotel, we rented a holiday apartment. It's a 1-bedroom apartment with a living room and kitchen, which is really nice to have with the kiddos. It was cheaper than a hotel, too!

I officially declare that I hate laundry. I spent the entire week (and I'm really surprisingly not exaggerating that) doing laundry. I had to do our normal laundry, plus all the towels we used, pillows, and bedding. Keep in mind our washer/dryer are tiny and take a really long time, so the equivalent of a size load I'd do in the US takes me 4 hours to wash and 2 to dry here. That's why this was such a time consuming process! I told my family they couldn't have any clean clothes past Wednesday, but for some reason Devin didn't go for it. I washed and dried the last pillows last night at 1:30 am, just in time for the movers today. Whew.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day packing our bags for the airplane and sorting things which go to us in Arizona and which things stay in storage here for the next employee. We had bought a lot of candy and chocolate the day before cause we were wanting to take it with us. I had already cleaned out my pantry & kitchen, so I left it in bags so I could pack it in suitcases. Well, stealth little Ethan managed to find a box of chocolates and ate about half of it before Devin noticed. Then, later in the day, I was rocking/soothing Kevin on the couch, and he again found 2 chocolate eggs and ate them before I realized. And I was in the same room! I feel like a horrible parent. Anyway, so needless to say, he was on quite a high that afternoon and couldn't calm down for a nap. He wasn't cranky, but he just couldn't stop moving. Later that night he was cranky cause he hadn't slept. He was also ticked about his house changing. I had given some friends the toy bins that were in the playroom. He kept pointing to that area and saying "put it back." I was thinking he would sleep really good that night because he hadn't had a nap. Well, I was quite wrong. He fell asleep for almost 2 hours, then was up and fussing the whole night. He slept between about 4-6am, but that was it. I started getting ready for church the next day, but Ethan was having breakdown after breakdown, so I had to call Devin (he went to church early for meetings) and tell him we weren't coming. I finally got him to take a 2 hour nap, so I was happy. I don't think I'm ever giving Ethan chocolate again!

It snowed for the first time this year on Saturday. The big boys were really excited about it and spent about 2 hours playing outside in it. Ethan tried playing, but came inside cause his hand had an "ouchie," which was actually just cold. He liked playing inside better. It snowed again on Sunday night, so now there's about 5 inches of snow in some areas! It was crazy driving back from our house last night to the holiday apartment. They hadn't plowed the roads yet, so I was slipping a little.

The movers came this morning, and when I went over there a few hours ago to see Devin, they had packed up most of the house. It seems so weird that we're not living there anymore! I wish I could combine all the good things about Ulm and Arizona. :)

Just keeps happening

Dallin lost his sixth tooth today! It's been loose for a while, but it was barely hanging on the last two days. Today the boys had carrots for snack (Dallin loves it when I give him carrots cause it really helps him see in the dark. Really good. Really.) so then it started bleeding, which of course freaked him out. It was hanging by a thread, so I told him to start twisting it, and it came right out. He is always so surprised when that happens! :) It's so cute and funny to watch. :)

He wrote a letter to the tooth fairy, asking for Euros (spelled yeroe) AND Dollars (Dolrs). We'll see what she comes up with. :)

Miraculously I actually scrapped a page with the pictures I took today (I don't think I've ever scrapped pics that day!), so here's the page I made with them:

After I was taking those pics of Dallin, I turned to Ethan to take his picture, and he immediately threw down his toys and did this:


I guess since I was interested in Dallin's teeth, naturally I'd be interested in Ethan's also. He's such a funny boy. :)

Moving is the Dumps.... Literally

Because our food and "other" garbage gets picked up every two weeks, we had to stop using our trash cans this past Wednesday so that the movers can pack them up in a week. This leads us to a small problem: what to do with our trash for 1 1/2 weeks? We decided to just go to the recycling center (dump equivalent, sort of) every few days and take our garbage. I'm just thrilled with the idea of going to the dump every few days until we move. Weeeeeeeeeee.

We still separate out the foil/plastic into the yellow sacks cause they come this Wednesday and the movers won't have to pack our beloved yellow sacks. (I was trying to convince Devin to take a roll home with us to AZ and somehow decorate a room with them, but he didn't seem to go for it)

The recycling center is a big lot with a bunch of big dumpsters around it with a car scale on one side. All the dumpsters are labeled with what you can put in them with these homemade type signs, and some of them have like fake flowers tied to them. Pretty weird. I'll have to take a picture of it next time I'm there. In two days.

You can take glass (separated into brown, green and white glass. Yes, there are three different types of glass.), paper (you have to separate out the flat paper and cardboard) and restmuell (everything else) and drop it off there. It's free to take the paper & glass, but you have to pay for the restmuell. You have to drive onto the car scale and they weigh your car first. Then, you throw away your restmuell, then you weigh your car again, and pay for the difference. Please don't ask me how we know this.

An important rule to remember, just in case you ever find yourself at a recycling center in Southern Germany, is to turn your car off every time you're in a stop position. This can mean between dropping off two glass bottles at one dumpster and then driving to the paper container 100 meters down the drive. It's just that important. We were scolded the first time we went there because geesh! This is the health of the workers we're talking about here.

We found out that we can't take the bio (food waste) to the dump to be recycled. I guess it just has to be thrown away with the "other trash," which can then be taken, but we have to pay for it. I must admit that it feels so weird just throwing away the food instead of putting it in the separate stinky recycling container under my sink. It just feels weird not to recycle now. I think it's going to be so weird going back to Arizona and getting to *gasp* throw away foil. I don't know if I'm ready....

Apparently Change Induces Nudity

We're only 2 1/2 weeks away from our "Big Day" and I think Kevin's starting to pick up on it. He has a hard time with change. In the last few days, all his clothes are starting to bother him. He says it in this dramatic whine that only he knows how. Last week he cried all the way to Dallin's school in the car and all the way walking into the school to get Dallin because his shirt was bothering him. It was like 30 degrees outside, so I couldn't take his shirt off, so he wasn't a happy camper. Actually that night, he told Devin that he was freaking out and crying like a baby girl. (I've never said that to him, so it was pretty funny that he came up with that!) Every day after school since then he takes off his pants because they're bothering him.

Yesterday I tried to put a turtle neck shirt on him and he screamed that it was choking him and took it off as fast as he could. I forgot about that episode when I was getting him ready for church this morning. I put on a mock turtleneck shirt, and he started freaking out again. I didn't have time to get new clothes and make sure they were ironed, so I just tried to talk to him about being tough and calm (these are really hard things for a 4-yr old). He refused to let me put his sweater on him because it was just too much to handle. He was stretching out the neck of his shirt, so he couldn't be bothered with sweaters. On the way to church, he took out the shoelaces of his shoes because they were just too tight. I put them back in, and he did it again during church, and a third time on the way home from church. He complained all during church that his clothes were bothering him. With all the stresses of life, it's a wonder any of us survive being four.

I'm hoping this gets better soon, or at least doesn't get worse because I don't think Germans would approve of nudity in the winter (Summer is a different story, though...)

We're still alive

My sisters started to ask if I was still alive cause I haven't been blogging lately. We had my friend, Marci, and her husband come visit us from Tucson this past week. It was really fun having them here. They brought their 2 month old baby boy, who just needed me to hold him- that is, until I got a bad cold and had to stay away from him. It was torture. He is so adorable. Ethan got a little jealous of me holding another little one, but he was also fascinated with him. He was always really concerned when Gavin was crying. It was cute.

We went all the usual places with them, and they went to a few places by themselves. We gave them our GPS, so they were able to get around everywhere.

We went to Rothenburg (one of my favorite places on Earth) with them, probably for the last time (unless I can convince Devin to go there for Christmas markets right before we leave....) It was fun and we found a new store that we bought a cool Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus figurine. We were told it was hand carved, but we're still debating that. :) Marci & Spencer bought the same one and they are eerily similar. :)

Here are some pics from their visit:On Sunday we had Raclette with the missionaries
In Rothenburg, Kevin's thinking really hard about what kind of "Schneeball" he wants

Dallin's looking in the window to try to decide (these are traditional in Rothenburg, you'll find them everywhere. They're pretty much just pie crust peices balled up.)

They both decided on cinnamon/sugar :)

At Neuschwanstein, the boys and I stayed out while Spencer & Marci went on the tour. The boys enjoyed their pretzels. :)

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween, especially with young kids. It's so fun! This year (like last year) didn't really feel like Halloween cause I didn't have any of my decorations with me and not many people here know about it or celebrate it. I was worried the boys would be disappointed, but they seemed to have a great time.

I volunteered in Dallin's school class that morning because they had a "Harvest Breakfast." They had a little assembly and then the kids went back to their classrooms and ate a "feast" that all the parents provided. It was cute. Kevin was in his kindergarten, but Ethan came with me. He was really good.

Later, we went to McDonald's for dinner for a fun treat for the kids (also because the next day was a holiday- All Saint's day- so all the grocery stores were going to be closed so the grocery stores were psychotic crazy busy and I didn't dare take all three kiddos with me). Devin got the kids dressed in their costumes while I braved the store. When I got back, we went trick-or-treating at 4 of our neighbor's houses that we knew would be expecting us. I had gotten extra candy to let the kids trick-or-treat in our house, but they were fine with only the 4 houses we went to. As we were walking back home, Dallin said, "This is the BEST halloween of my life!"

The cutest, um I mean scariest bat you'll ever see :)

Dallin's principal (from England) dressed up like a pumpkin

Dallin's school class. His teacher (from Ireland) is in the back. Dallin's right in front of her, dressed up as a Star Wars "storm trooper".

This is Dallin's "Feast." :)

Kevin is a "good guy." He was so excited about his costume, but then when I put it on him, he freaked out and said the fake chain mail was bothering him. I told him he couldn't go trick-or-treating and get candy unless he wore it, so that quickly solved things (in addition to an undershirt). Papa made the boys wooden shields and small swords, so he was fully equipped.

My Halloween cuties :)

Reason 7, 563 that I love Arizona, and a few pictures :)

Sorry it took me forever to get these pics uploaded. The day after my Dad left we had Daylight Savings Time here in Europe, and it has totally screwed up Ethan's sleep schedule for life (it seems). It's only ONE hour, but he has been waking up at 5am this whole past week, and only taking 45 minute naps when he usually takes 2 or 2 1/2 hour naps. He's been a bear and I've been dying. Mostly because I'm scared to death of moving back to AZ with an EIGHT hour time difference. Oh my. It's enough to make me want to apply for asylum to live here in Germany permanently. But, then again, we'd have to do the time change twice a year. It's kindof like taking of a band-aid slowly. I guess we'll just rip off the bandaid quickly with moving back and then never have to change our time again in Arizona. I love that about Arizona! :)

Anyway, here are some pics of my Dad's visit. We had a great time with him! We didn't do too much traveling/sightseeing because I had to pick up Dallin at 3:30 everyday from school, but we had fun together just hanging out.

The boys had fun riding Papa the horse. :)

Dad & I went shopping a bit downtown (he bought me the three kings to complete my kid-friendly wood nativity that I've been collecting piece by piece since we've been here. Thanks, Dad!) and Ethan just fell asleep like that in his stroller. He's NEVER done that, so I was so surprised!

All the boys loved riding on Papa's shoulders. Everywhere we went, they would ask to get up there. It was cute!

Every afternoon, my Dad would take the boys to the ice cream shop near our house and then to the park. It gave me some nice quiet time by myself, which was really nice. One day I asked if I could go, too, and Dallin politely told me that I should probably stay home. :)

We went to Neuschwanstein with Kevie & Ethan while Dallin was in school one day.

Papa & Ethan having fun on the bus up to the castle

Dallin having fun at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Our future ballerina. :)

This is where Kevin learned how to slide down a fireman's pole. We came here with Devin's family in August, and he learned then. He was so happy to practice again. :)
Kevin LOVED this thing, but he would only go on it with me or Daddy. It was so cute. I really need one of these in my house! :)

My dad brought the boys matching hats that said "Papa's Boys" on them. So cute!

Thanks for coming, Dad!

Bowling Fun

A few weekends ago we went bowling with two other families from the International school. They were both from England. One little girl, Lotte, is in Dallin's 1st grade class, so he had fun with her. We all had a good time eventhough one of the 10-yr old boys beat my score (he did have bumpers, though...). Kevin always insisted on throwing the ball BY HIMSELF, and with his momentum, it usually took the ball 3 minutes to get down the lane. :) It was a fun night!